Press release

Bulgaria advances to 13th-place match

Niterói, Brazil, August 8, 2011 – Bulgaria made its way into the 13th-place match with a sweep of Egypt, 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-19) in the final match of the evening at Caio Martins gymnasium.

Bulgaria will play Tunisia at 6:30 p.m. on August 9. Egypt will face Puerto Rico for 15th place at 4 p.m.

Bulgaria’s Jani Jeliazkov and Egypt’s Omar Hassan each led the scoring with 12 points for their respective teams. Jeliazkov scored on 11 attacks and one block. Hassan scored on 11 attacks and one ace.

Plamen Dragiev had four blocks for Bulgaria. Idris Moustafa had three for Egypt.

Bulgaria led Egypt in attacks (37-33), in blocks (10-8) and in aces (4-1). Bulgaria scored 24 points on Egypt team errors while committing 18.

The first set stayed close throughout and was still tied at 19-19 when Plamen Dragiev scored on a tip for Bulgaria, which added a block to go up 21-19. Egypt called timeout, but Bulgaria added another point to lead 22-19. Bulgaria reached set point at 24-21 on Pavel Dushkov’s attack. Moustafa Idris scored with a tip before Ventsislav Trifonov won the set for Bulgaria with a spike.

With the second-set score tied at 7-7, Bulgarian setter Borislav Georgiev dumped the ball to give Bulgaria the lead at the first technical timeout (TTO). Nikolay Penchev followed with an ace to give Bulgaria a 9-7 lead. Egypt kept the score close, pulling to within one point at 15-14 on Mohamed El Askolany’s strike down the middle. But Bulgaria’s Dragiev answered with his own attack and Egypt’s next spike attempt went into the net, putting Bulgaria up by three. Egypt did not threaten again.

The third set was tied 7-7 when Egypt’s serve went long and Bulgaria’s Penchev followed with an ace. A block from Dobromir Dimitrov gave Bulgaria a 10-7 lead. Egypt called timeout, but Zlatan Yordanov came back with an attack and Egypt could not close the gap after that.